Vick Vinegar

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Oh, and defensively Melo is about the same as Durant, nowhere near LeBron. Melo is better at defensing bigger players since he has a great anchor, while Durant can defend wings better since he's really big. But, all-in-all they're both above-average man-on-man defenders this year. Their main issue is that they don't have great defensive instincts and often leave the lane open for cuts or don't help properly. LeBron is the perfect defender in that he makes almost no mistake, and he has the athleticism to force turnovers and stick with any person in the league.

I wanted to answer why Melo is a top 5 player. Each NBA defense has a system which puts their players in a position to contest shots, create turnovers and collect rebounds. The value of players who can alter a system to fit their scoring abilities is much greater than someone who shoots well but can't create offense on their own. Nate Silver did a fantastic piece a couple years back where he noticed that Melo drew more double teams than any other player in the NBA, and he raised the field-goal percentage of his teammates more than any other player in the NBA except for Chris Paul. Sure Anthony doesn't get a lot of assists, but his value to the offense is paramount, and he does, contrary to popular belief, pass well. Notice how many hockey assists he gets, when he is on the elbow or low post, there is a PG shifted to his side over the key, and a shooter on the other side of the court. When the double team comes, he passes it to the PG (Kidd, Prigioni, Felton) who then quickly passes it to the open shooter because that's where the help defense always comes from. He doesn't get the assist, but Melo's scoring ability facilitated those points. it's also amazing how few turnovers Melo makes, but I feel that's more because of the Knick's slow deliberate offense and their point guards than Anthony's own decision making. Anthony is also a decent rebounder; he doesn't put up good numbers, but he's as explosive on the second jump and has great rebounding technique.

Often people compare Anthony to Durant or LeBron, but the truth is that they are very different players. Durant is more of a giant Jamal Crawford kind of player, he utilizes his length well, and is very agile and fast. He is also a dominant rebounder, and burgeoning passer but his scoring ability comes from the perimeter and drives to the basket and from the free-throw line. LeBron is not a scorer, but he lets the ball come to him, and he while he can shoot, he does most of his damage on drives and in transition. Melo is on a much slower offense, where he either plays off the ball on the pick-and-roll as a spot-up shooter, or more often, he is surrounded by shooters while he operates in the post. They're very different players even though they play the same position; Durant is a oversized shooting guard, LeBron is a oversized point guard, and Melo is a undersized power forward.